Odds & Ends

By Devin D. O'Leary

Dateline: Japan—A 32-year-old Japanese woman who called police to report an unreliable hit man was arrested last Wednesday for incitement to murder. The Daily Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday that the unnamed woman contacted a private detective through a website last November and paid him $9,000 in cash to murder her lover's wife. The 40-year-old detective accepted the money and suggested he would carry out the job by chasing the victim on a motorcycle and spraying her with a biological agent in a tunnel. Police also arrested the private detective and found the alleged target unharmed, the newspaper said.

Dateline: Indiana—Serial stripper Bradford Zeigler didn't do his case any good when he appeared in Allen Superior Court last Wednesday to defend himself on charges of public nudity. The 40-year-old Zeigler actually took off his clothes in front of the judge, several attorneys and others in the courtroom--twice. Zeigler was supposed to be pleading guilty to a felony charge of public nudity stemming from an arrest in May. According to Fort Wayne's Journal Gazette, Zeigler first pleaded guilty May 3 to a misdemeanor charge of public nudity after being spotted wandering naked through Foster Park. He was arrested three days later on a felony charge after police found him, once again, naked in Foster Park. While in jail, Zeigler also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of battery. According to that affidavit, Zeigler took off his clothes and touched his cell mate in a sexual manner as the man slept. Because of the misdemeanor battery charges, Zeigler was ordered to serve an additional 60 days in jail. In that time, he was cited three more times for removing his clothes and walking naked around the Allen County Jail dayroom. The dayroom is a common area where inmates gather to play cards, eat or watch TV. When he was finally brought into court to answer the charges stemming from his felony public nudity charge, Zeigler waited until he was seated at the defense table next to his attorney before doffing his jail-issued orange jumpsuit. A bailiff reclothed the defendant, but he disrobed again several minutes later, prompting the judge to halt the hearing. Senior Allen Superior Court Judge Bruce Embry ordered Zeigler to be psychologically evaluated. The felony charge will remain pending until the outcome of the evaluations is determined.

Dateline: North Dakota—Justin W. Fraase, 26, made a serious miscalculation when he videotaped himself having sex with a woman he was ordered to stay away from and then presented the tape to police. Fraase apparently gave the tape to an officer, expecting it to show that the woman didn't fear him. “He obviously didn't watch it before he gave it to us,” Lt. Tod Dahle said. The woman, who has two children with Fraase, said he called her over to his home to discuss the custody of their kids. When she arrived, he cornered her and wouldn't let her go until she had sex with him. Assistant Cass County State's Attorney Leah Viste watched the video and charged Fraase with three felonies: gross sexual imposition, felonious restraint and violation of a protection order. “He provides us the videotape and doesn't realize that there's all this evidence on there that ends up putting him in jail,” Dahle said. “So basically he arrested himself.”

Dateline: Colorado—Soaring real estate prices in the ritzy resort town of Aspen have caused yet another local business to relocate: The Aspen Board of Realtors. The board was renting an office at the Aspen airport because real estate prices had gone so high in the city, where even a small, one-bedroom house can go for $1 million. According to Brynne Kristan, executive vice president of the board, the Realtors have purchased a spacious new office--in the town of Basalt, 10 miles northwest of Aspen.

Dateline: Peru—A Gambian jetliner bound for Lima performed an emergency landing in the northern coastal town of Piura last Tuesday--so passengers could watch a soccer game at the FIFA Under-17 World Championships. The chartered Lockhead L1011 was scheduled to land in Lima, but pilots radioed ahead, saying they were low on fuel. Emergency crews were scrambled ahead of the unscheduled landing. But, as it turned out, everything was fine. The 289 passengers simply wanted to get off and watch a soccer match between Gambia and Qatar. “It truly was a scam,” said Betty Maldonado, a spokesperson for Peru's aviation authority, CORPAC. “They tricked the control tower, saying they were low on fuel.” Gambian newspaper Daily Observer reported on its webpage last Wednesday that the fans had been delayed for a week in a hotel in the small West African nation. If the plane had made its scheduled journey to Lima, 550 miles south of Piura, the passengers would have missed the game. After the game was over, authorities kept the plane, passengers and crew in Piura trying to determine what penalty, if any, to levy against the airline. According to CORPAC, the flight was chartered by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.